Rise of Skadi
by ToxicGentleman
Summary: When her powers began getting stronger, Elsa ran away before anything else could go wrong. With the help of a friend, they look for a way to help her learn to control her powers. RotBTFD crossover.
1. Prologue

His azure orbs pierced through the bushes of the garden, having snuck in as he did every month, and scanned the area for the only other figure he knew would be there. He was pressed low to the dew covered grassy ground with his legs pulled into his body, hoping the shadows cast by the nearly full moon and the leaves of the bushes would hide his silver fur. Looking around for a final time, he finally spotted his target entering the garden. He smiled to himself and was about to pounce on the girl with braided platinum blond hair, but her appearance stopped him dead.

Normally she wore a blue dress, a matching bolero that had black cuffs and gold trim running up the center flaps, and white silk gloves. This time she was dressed in a black skirt that was made of thicker material, a dark fur jacket bundled tightly and a hood pulled over her head, and a brown leather satchel was strung over her shoulder. Even from across the garden, he could see her icy orbs, though normally full of chocked happiness at these monthly visits, were red and puffy, indicating she had been crying.

It wasn't uncommon for her to show up in tears, and in those times, he had become her furry shoulder to cry on while she told him through her sobs what had caused her tears. Usually, the reason was caused by her sister wanting her to open up and interact but with the rules placed by her father to keep the younger sister safe from the older, she was unable to. It always brought her to tears whenever her sister asked to play. This time would not be the same with all the winter gear she was dressed in.

At seeing the red eyes and the extra gear, he quickly made himself seen and hurried over to the girl, who was having a difficult time holding back her sobs and tears. At seeing him rush to her, she threw her arms around his furry neck and squeezed as tight as she could. Standing at full height, his shoulders came to hers though if his head was held high he would be a head taller. His height was convenient as he was the perfect height to drape his head over her shoulder and press the bottom of his snout into her fur covered back, their form of a hug. He knew in moments like this she needed a hug more than talking.

A few moments passed as the girl let the tears fall and buried her face into his silver pelt to muffle her sobs as to not alert any of the few roaming guards to their presence. When she had calmed down enough to slowly pull away from him, he lifted his head and released her. She took a step back and wiped her eyes with her hands before looking into his azure eyes.

"Skol, it's time for me to leave the castle," she said, looking over her shoulder at the dark castle. "With my powers getting stronger, I'm only putting everyone here at risk."

She turned back to be met with a shocked expression across Skol's eyes, but it was replaced by one of understanding. He nodded his large head sadly and turned his side to her before lowering himself to the ground. Looking at her, he saw the shock on her face.

"I wasn't going to ask you to carry me," she said.

He huffed, nodding his head for her to climb on. When she didn't move, he shook his head, "How else were you planning on leaving? It will be faster if you climb on," he deadpanned to her through their telepathic link.

She looked from his eyes to his back before sighing with a nod, "You're right. Let us go before mama checks up on me. She will no doubt throw the castle into hysteria from me leaving. I guess this is good-bye." She looked back at the castle with a forlorn look.

"Good-bye is said when you plan to never come back. Maybe in a few years when you have control over your powers, we can come back," Skol offered.

"Yeah, but it will be longer than a few years," she answered, turning back to him and climbing onto his back. He rose to his feet, the jostle causing her to grab fist fulls of fur to hold onto.

"Since this is your first time riding a wolf, I suggest you hold on tightly and stay leaned against my back. It will also allow you to move as I do. Other than that, don't kick my sides like you would a horse," Skol said, causing a small giggle to escape her lips.

"Well then, shall we be off? Wait, how are we going to get out? The only way is to swim, but-"

She was interrupted by Skol turning towards the lake that connected to a river. He then began to run, causing her to clamp down on top of him. She watched through his lowered ears as he ran towards the water. Instinctively, she held her breath for the impending cold of the late autumn water to meet her and closed her eyes as he leaped over a stone bench. She felt him land on something solid and continue to run. Peeking her eyes open, she found them running across the lake towards the river entrance. Glancing behind them, she saw a trail of ice that disappeared shortly after being formed. She quickly looked down to see that Skol was freezing the water underneath his paws, small splashes of water quickly turning into snow from the flash freezing causing his legs to be shrouded in a thin icy mist that slowly began to climb up until it half concealed them both. A smile of disbelief crossed her face as a long forgotten feeling began to fill in her, hope.

Looking back to the front, a smile on her face, she saw the gate that closed any water access to the lake was closed, with a few torches lighting the top of the wall. Being sure to pull the hood tighter over her head to hide her appearance more, she was curious to see how Skol was going to get around it and the guards she could see. Suddenly the icy mist around them began to form a cone in front of them, causing the temperature around them to drop, but they increased in speed. With a final leap, she couldn't hold in the laugh that escaped as Skol jumped over the wall. She saw a few slack-jawed guards watch as they sailed past and land on the river's surface on the opposite side of the gate. As they ran up the river heading into the mountain, a bell could be heard ringing from behind them. Looking back one final time, the smile that was on her face from the excitement turned sad.

"Good-bye for now. I will be back," she said under her breath.

"So, where are we heading?" Skol asked, still following the river.

"Follow the river north over the mountains, then once we are past the mountains, then we can follow them west to another coastal village. Hopefully, they will have a boat heading towards the north or west. From there we keep going until we can find a good place to stay," Elsa said over the wind.

"Sounds like a plan. Maybe we can find someone to make a saddle and a set of saddlebags that will fit me. This way you have something to hold onto," Skol commented with a chuckle.

"We will cross that bridge later. First, how long have you had ice powers and why didn't you tell me?" she asked, causing a deep laugh to rumble through Skol's throat.


	2. Dragons and Wolves: Part 1

_Four Years Later_

His eyes snapped open, instincts waking him from his short nap. Azure orbs scanned the small cove they had taken refuge in. Through the dying firelight and the slowly disappearing stars darkening the area, he was relying on his natural night vision to spot any movement. After not seeing anything, his ears perked at hearing something along flapping from above. He shot to his feet, eyes locked on the sky. A small thud drowned out the cracking of the fire as the bundle of fur that was resting against his side hit the ground. A feminine groan was soon heard as the bundle unwrapped herself. Elsa rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Did you have to jump up so quickly? I just fell asleep," she complained. After not hearing a remark from the wolf, she looked him over better and noticed his tense stance. Over the past four years, he had begun growing in size, first being larger than the average wolf to now resembling the size of a bear with the height of a Clydesdale. A jagged scar ran from just under his left ear and traveled down over the left eye and ended on his lower jaw. That wasn't the only addition he achieved. Not only had his fur gone from a dull silver to polish, giving him an ethereal look when running at night with his icy mist, but he had three thin blue lines painted over his right eye.

He wasn't the only one who had changed though. Elsa had hit her growth spurt the year prior, now towering over most men her age and majority of adults, save for the Vikings, who were large due to all the muscle, that she stood eye to eye with most of them. She wore a blue wool long sleeve shirt that tucked into a pair of leather vambraces, though her left was a gauntlet that was fitted with as an archer's glove. She had a leather corset that held a fur-lined skirt, which tapered from her left hip down to calf-length on her right side. A pair of brown leather trousers covered her legs and tucked neatly into a pair of calf-high fur boots. Her platinum blond hair had grown out, which now reached her lower back in its braid while her bangs were also braided and framed her face.

At the lack of response from him, she slowly climbed to her feet, grabbing her belt, which held a blue dagger strapped to her lower back with her quiver hanging right below it. Inside the quiver were a bundle of blue arrows that resembled her dagger. She then grabbed the bow, which was made from a set of antlers and covered in Celtic carving, that was resting beside it. Notching an arrow, she began to scan the cliff edge of the cove for any sign of an attack.

They had arrived just as the moon was highest in the sky, being sure to avoid any possible patrols of the village guards. They had searched the forest for a safe place to set up camp when they discovered the hidden cove that was surrounded by cliff faces which provided protection from being seen but at the cost of an easy ambush sight if they were caught. They had removed the makeshift saddlebags and bool blanket from Skol's back and set camp before turning in for the night.

"Elsa, I can feel an attack coming. Do you want to stay here and wait it out, or should we head to the village?" Skol asked, still staring at the sky.

Elsa thought for a moment before sighing, "I guess we aren't going to get much sleep tonight are we?"

"Nope, good thing we have all day," Skol commented while shaking his head. Elsa leaped on top of his back, bow in hand, and tapped his shoulder, signaling she was ready. He then ran forward and jumped to one of the ledges that lined the cliff face before leaping out of the cove. They made haste towards the village, sounds of fighting echoing through the forest while a small orange glow could be seen as they neared.

"Skol, stay just behind the treeline. We won't interfere unless its necessary," Elsa commanded.

It wasn't the first time they had come upon an attack like this since entering the archipelago. The first time had been on an island home to a female tribe called the Bog-Burglars. Though they had told her that they didn't get raided that often, it was usually a bad time whenever they were raided by their scaly neighbors. The women had been taken back by her and Skol running across the water and jumping in to help, her using her ice arrows to drive the beast back, while Skol helped guard the livestock. When the raid was over, they both helped as best they could around the village, Elsa with putting fires out and Skol dragging large supplies around to houses that needed repair. After everything was sorted and repairs were underway, the heir, Camicazi, had explained to her about the dragon and their history with them.

Since then, they have had their fair share of run-ins with other dragons, both in the wild and in nearby villages being raided. One thing they had noticed was that the circumstances they had met the dragons in, defined how they interacted. In the wild, the dragons were like any other animal, aggressive if provoked and peaceful if left alone. During a raid, however, they became different and attacked anything they deemed a threat. After a few encounters of both, they had decided it was best to only help out if the village truly needed help, thus only killing dragons should it be necessary. If not then they would simply watch.

They neared the village, watching as different dragons fought against the Vikings while some were stealing food. No sooner would one pick up some form of livestock, would they be attacked by a Viking. The village looked like they had the raid under control. As they stalked the treeline, movement caught Elsa's eye and she found herself watching as a scrawny boy her age push a machine towards a cliff.

"Follow that boy," Elsa said, causing Skol to eye the toothpick and follow. Curiosity caused them to observe as once the boy arrived at the edge of the cliff, the machine he was dragging up there soon unfolded itself into a small ballista type contraption. He scanned the sky, aim the ballista around with no movement in the area he was looking.

"I wonder what he's looking for," Skol asked.

"Probably a dragon," Elsa answered.

A moment later a high pitch whistle caused Skol to flinch, while Elsa's eyes raked the sky. An explosion sounded, drawing both her and Skol's attention to a catapult that was now destroyed, yet a distinct thwack cut through the noise. Elsa glanced over at the boy and saw him jumping around in excitement, completely oblivious to the large orange and black dragon with a crown full of horns, large teeth filled jaws, and two giant wings, climbing the cliff behind him. Its yellow eyes bore down on the boy's back and suddenly said boy spun on the spot. With a scream, he turned tail and ran down the cliff with the dragon in hot pursuit. Shortly after the chase started, a green birdlike dragon also gave chase.

"SKOL!" Elsa commanded.

Without missing a beat, he leaped from behind the tree line in pursuit of the dragons. As the scrawny boy ran, he led the dragons into the village, obscuring the duo's view of them. Skol jumped to the rooftops, being sure to avoid damaging them as he ran. He followed the group, quickly gaining speed on them while Elsa shot arrows to dissuade other dragons from joining the pursuit while also trying to hit the bird-like dragon. The boy jumped behind a large wooden post just as the large orange dragon began to breathe fire. With the dragon distracted, Skol lunged from the rooftops, icy fangs bared. As he soared through the air, Elsa notched three arrows and fired them. Two sunk into the flank of the green dragon, encasing the leg in ice, while the third sunk into the ground underneath it, creating a patch of ice that caused it to slip. The bird-like dragon quickly took flight to avoid crashing and flew away with a squawk. Skol's powerful jaws clamped around the large dragons snake-like neck and his fangs sank into the hide while avoiding the spines. Blood gushed down his lower jaw and tongue while a loud crack filled his acute hearing. He dropped the lifeless dragon and looked towards the weakening pole that the boy had jumped behind, which was quickly encased in ice to strengthen it before it collapsed.

"Odin's Beard," a stunned voice whispered, causing the duo to turn their attention to the surrounding crowd which began to grow in numbers the longer they stayed there.

"Skol," Elsa said in a worrying tone. He could feel her slightly trembling atop him and nodded his large head. Even after traveling from town to town, going from marketplace to marketplace, she still was nervous in crowds, though the few bad run-ins with the occasional mob didn't help her at all.

"Already on it," he answered. He quickly turned towards the forest and made haste back to the cove. Over the heavy patter of his paws hitting the rough ground, he could hear the gasps and whispers of the villagers.

"Was that Skadi?"

"Loki's balls, that's a big wolf."

"Is she riding that wolf?"

"You are a lucky one, laddie. To have a goddess looking out for you is a miracle sent by Odin himself." That caught Skol's attention most as they broke the treeline.

"Well, would you look at that. Not even here for a full night and they already think you're a goddess," Skol teased as he weaved through the woods.

"Ug, I really hope not. The last thing I need is for them to start sacrificing things to me for a good winter or something," Elsa complained.

"What would they sacrifice to you anyway? All they have are dragons and we don't eat dragons. The meat is too tough," he retorted as they entered the cove.

Elsa hopped off of his back, "Hope not, though some offerings would be nice. Some money for an inn, a new bow, heck even a saddle for you would be nice. Riding bareback hurts my hips and the makeshift saddle we currently have does little to help," Elsa said stretching out her hips as Skol was washing out his mouth of dragons blood and scales in the nearby pond.

"You're just stingy with the money and don't want to spend the money to get one properly made," Skol remarked, licking his lips before lowering to get a drink.

Only to be blindsided by a snowball to the left side of his face. He spun on an arrow tip and faced Elsa, who was trying to look innocent with her hands behind her back and avoiding eye contact at all cost. A mischievous look flashed across Skol's eyes.

"Oh, you want to play that game do you?" he asked, stalking towards her slowly with his head low. Elsa watched him close the distance between them, quickly locking eyes with him before she started to back up, matching him step for step.

"S-Skol, what are you doing?" she asked, trying to be firm but the slight stutter shattered her attempt.

Before she could react, he pounced, tackling her to the ground with a large paw on her chest to hold her down while the other paw was by her head to stop her from trying to roll away. He lowered his muzzle towards her face, making a show to sniff her as if checking her freshness.

"Skol, don't you-"

She was interrupted as he began attacking her face with his tongue. She quickly brought her hands to her face to try and stop the onslaught. She was soon laughing at her own failed attempts to cover her face, only to have his snout wiggle under her hands and continue the assault. Several moments passed and Elsa soon found her face and exposed hair soaked with slobber.

"Skol, you better stop it or I will freeze your tongue for a week," Elsa barely managed to threatened in between laughs and giggles.

"Well if that's how you want to play," he challenged, collapsing on top of her, earning an "oof" from her. His large head covered her torso, while his front paws pinned her arms to the ground. His nose was inches from her chin and she could see the content smirk in his eyes when she looked down at him. She wiggled her arms a bit and managed to get her left hand free, reached up behind his right ear. She then began to scratch his favorite spot, earning a sigh from him.

"Okay you win that round," she said, watching his lips twitch into a smile before his eyes closed. They laid like that for roughly an hour, his large fur body not cutting circulation off to any important while also allowing her to breathe easily. Their breathing was in sync as they napped together, well more him than her as she was reminded of the action they had taken earlier in the morning and them being discovered.

"How close are you to transforming?" Elsa asked, knowing that he would answer.

It was something that she had found out about quickly after they left Arendelle. As the full moon approached, Skol would slowly begin to lose his powers over ice and wind until he didn't have them anymore the day before. Once the full moon rose, he then began to transform, his size decreasing while his limbs contorting themselves with painful snaps resounding through the air. His snout would shrink and the fur on his body would thin out until he was nothing but skin with a head full of silver hair. He would finish his transformation by the time the moon was fully visible on the horizon, turning him from a wolf into a man. The first time it happened it had scared Elsa out of her wits, almost causing her to freeze the cave they were staying in. After the transformation, he had explained what happened, apologizing for not telling her sooner since she had spent the days leading up to it in a nearby village. After wrapping himself in a blanket, he then explained the full extent of his powers and gift. After that day, they made sure to always have a set of clothes on standby for him whenever they were nearing the transformation.

"A week at most. My powers are already waining and I doubt I could run on water right now," he answered, his eyes still closed.

"So we're stuck on a dragon raiding island-"

"Yup."

"-with large Vikings-"

"Yeah."

"-who have just as large of weapons-"

"Right."

"-that may or may not kill us on sight."

"Probably."

...

...

...

"Bring it on then. We can handle anything that comes our way," Elsa said confidently.

Suddenly a roar rolled through the forest and across the cove, causing both wolf and girl to jump to their feet. Elsa reached for her knife, only to mentally facepalm. Her weapons were over in the camp, which was too far to run for as the source of the roar came falling over the ridge.

A pained cry came from the creature as it tumbles to a stop near the small pond. It crawled to its feet, shaking its head to gain its bearings which gave Elsa enough time to soak in its appearance. The creature was without a doubt a dragon, yet it wasn't like any dragon she had seen. It was black as the night, though some of its scales were varying shades of black, to better blend in with the night sky. It had four legs, a set of large bat-like wings on its back, and a long tail. Lithe was the best word Elsa could think to describe the dragon as it seemed to be made for speed, while its streamlined body moved with precise movements that resembled a jungle cat.

"Elsa, slowly get behind that rock. We might be able to avoid an attack if it thinks its just me at the moment," Skol said. Elsa simply nodded and slowly crept towards the nearest boulder, keeping her eyes locked on the dragon.

The dragon spread its wings and began to fly out of the cove... only to come crashing back down to the earth with a shocked roar. After crawling back to its feet, it tried to fly several more times, each time crashing back to the earth. After the fifth time, it lifted its tail to get a better look at it, and Elsa saw that it was missing one of the tail fins. The dragon then threw it's head back and roared, almost resembling a cry or anguish before collapsing back to the ground.

Its large head swiveled around and scanned the area it had become imprisoned in, causing acidic emeralds to meet icy blue orbs. At realizing it wasn't alone, the dragon jumped to its feet, bared its sharp teeth and began to growl, spreading its wings to look larger while the pupils shrank to slits.

Skol responded almost instantly, baring his own ice fangs with his own growl. His fur stood on end, making his impressive size look even bigger as he stepped between Elsa and the dragon. The two locked eyes as the dragon recognized the bigger threat as Skol.

"Skol?" Elsa asked worry laced her voice as she watched her friend from the corner of her eye as she studied the dragon.

"Elsa hide and don't come out until the battle's over," Skol commanded. Despite a small part of her getting angry at him for knowing that she could protect herself, she had read the situation as a territorial match.

This was not the first time that she had to witness one of these kinds of fights. Skol would be acting on basic animal instinct and had to show his dominance to any predator that attempted to claim their camping area as their own. The fights usually ended with Skol winning easily and letting the animal he fought go, but they hadn't had to have one of these fights with a dragon as they would normally just fly off or simply shrug and walk away. This was different as the dragon that he faced couldn't simply fly off and was highly defensive.

Knowing better than to get in the middle of one of these fights, Elsa jumped behind the boulder. No sooner than she had leaped, had a roar filled the cove. It was quickly followed by the sound of a fireball being thrown her way, only for it to hit the ground beside the boulder and send dirt scattering. Flash freezing sounds filled her ears along with barks and growls from Skol, only to be matched by growls and snarls from the dragon. She heard several fire blasts come from the dragon, only to be quickly matched by more flash freezing. A thud echoed around the cove, followed by a growl and another thud.

Elsa's curiosity grew as the fight raged on. She was tempted to peek over the edge of the boulder to watch, only to be warned against it as a stray blast of fire hit the cliffside. It then brought her to the painful realization that Skol was facing against a dragon. A creature just as mythical as Skol himself. She began to think about the dragons they had encountered and how they usually fought. She remembered the large fat dragons tended to hover and shoot blasts of fire. The two-headed dragon liked to play with its prey, spraying gas from one head before lighting it with the other head. The bird-like dragon tended to shoot spikes from its tail and only breathed fire as a last resort. She remembered a small dragon that tended to claw and bite at its foes, using speed and its small size to its advantage. Then there was the large horned dragon that liked to set itself on fire and employed a lot of fire-breathing attacks when it fought. Judging by the sounds of the fight, the dragon Skol was fighting against wasn't used to the close fighting approach as it kept shooting off blasts, yet the multiple thuds mixed with growls showed it was still capable of fighting close range.

The sounds of fighting died down, and Elsa chanced a peek over the edge of the boulder she hid behind. The area was littered with patches of ice, scorch marks, and blood. Standing between the pond and their camp where the two fighters, both panting heavily on shaky legs and covered in scratches and bite marks. Yet they stared each other down. A few tense moments passed before the dragon gave a curt nod and turned around. It made its way to the far side of the cove, near the lone tree, and scorched the ground before laying down. It then began to lick at its wounds. Elsa turned her attention back to Skol and saw him lay down on the spot and begin licking his own wounds. A sigh of relief left her as she moved from her spot and walked over to her friend.

"So, who won?" she asked nervously.

"It was a tie. Though, I will be the first to say that I was lucky he wasn't able to fly. Had he had the ability to fly, I wouldn't have faired as well in my current condition," Skol said, shaking his head before continuing to lick his wounds.

"I'm sure you would have kicked his scaly butt, even if he was able to fly," Elsa commented with a smile as she scratched him behind the ear. "Want me to wrap some of those?"

"Sure," he said, climbing to his feet and walked over toward their camp, which was near the small waterfall. Elsa then went over to their supplies and began pulling some bandages out.

He watched the interaction between the snow-covered two-leger and moon furred one with a mix of curiosity and wonder. In his travels before being forced to join the Mind-Stealer's nest, he had watched the two-leggers from a distance. They had always fascinated him, despite the bad relations between his kind and them. The moon furred one had fought a tough battle against himself, thus earning his respect as a fellow predator. Yet instead of acting like the other smaller four-legged furs he was so similar too, he showed the snow-covered two-leger respect as if they were communicating to one another. The snow-covered two-leger also treated him as an equal, not someone that was below them.

He sniffed the air, having witnessed the moon furred use ice-based attacks, he had expected the smell of ice to come from him, yet he could also smell it coming off of the snow-covered two-leger. He knew that if two creatures spent enough time together than their sents would rub off on each other, yet for some reason, he couldn't tell if the snow-covered two-leger had the sent naturally or if it came from the moon furred one. He decided to be careful of the two-leger for the time being.


End file.
